with such elegant hearts
by darkmistress in the shadows
Summary: there was a heartbeat once, she remembers


**with such elegant hearts  
Disclaimer:** I do not own Bleach.  
**Warnings:** chapter 376 spoilers  
**Summary**: there was once a heartbeat, she remembers

--

The blood covers her front when she slashes at the vizard. Liza falls back and coughs. Her companions scream her name but she holds up a hand to stop them. Her gaze stays on Tia with sinister determination from leftover battles left unsettled from years before. Her newest wound is a long line from shoulder to shoulder, soaking her outfit with bright, antagonizing red.

"This will end."

Lisa smirks. "One way or another?"

Tia stares apathetically across the sky to the vizard woman. "Will you show me your power?"

"I hoped I could show you more than just power," Lisa holds out her hand, the red substance falling lazily off her fingers, "The difference between you and I."

"I already know," Tia says evenly.

Suddenly, she's next to the vizard, her hand to her neck. Lisa doesn't react, having seen the flashstep in advance.

"You have a pulse."

Lisa sets her bloody hand on the hollow of Tia's neck.

"So do you."

--

There's a _swish_ in back of her before she realizes (_too late, too late_) that her enemy has already given the final blow. It doesn't hurt. At first. Her vision blurs and she faintly hears the traitor captain tell her:

_"That's twice now, you've made me swing my blade."_

She sees blood fall around her form lightly. Her own blood, Tia figures. She doesn't feel it yet. There's only numb wariness and the understanding that she's been defeated. Betrayed. She can't feel bitterness, can't feel sadness. It's over, and that's the vivid thought that runs through her mind.

--

Tia once laughed.

She remembers it sounded like a wind's voice through tunnels, deep and soft. No one noticed, save for Aizen (_but he notices everything, she knows_) but it caused something inside her to feel empty. A hollowed emotion tugged in her mind as the small laugh reverberated through her. Something was missing and something pinched at something that was supposed to be there.

But it's gone before she knows it and after that, it didn't matter.

--

Her eyes stare over the battle field passively. Nothing new is happening. Stabs, blood and screams. Few revelations.

No one helps her as she dies slowly in the dirt, her blood like streams amongst the ruble and glass. A thought crosses her mind and she turns her head to the window just inches away from her. The reflection gazes at her face with hints of hesitation and tiredness. She thinks about ending her life there. But it's not worth it. She'll wait.

Strange. She thinks she saw that vizard girl glance at her from the distance.

--

A captain revives her somehow. She has kind eyes, the type Harribel had wished to have at one point in her life, but dismissed it quickly (because there's no room to be _kind_ in this world).

"What do you plan to do now?"

Tia doesn't know the answer. So she goes with the obvious. "Whatever I can do."

One of the vizards helping makes a sound of uncertainty. "Why?"

"Because it's all she's ever known, Hiyori."

Harribel hadn't realized it before, but this woman knew all the answers before she asked them.

--

Tia remembers someone once smiled at her. She doesn't remember who, but it gave her a sense of importance--something she has not felt in forevers ago.

She thinks she felt the beat of a heart that doesn't exist within her chest.

--

As she is cuffed with bindings of kido and things she'd like to call magic, Harribel is led to a room. It's large and overwhelming, for all the captains stand in two even rows. The head captain is at the end of both. He doesn't seem to open his eyes, but she feels his piercing gaze.

There is judgement breathing in and out of their mouths and she closes her eyes and resigns her fate here.

"Enough!" someone shouts, "We've gone through this! She is an arrancar, nothing more."

"Look at her!" another gestures to her hollow figure, "Does that look like a demon to you?"

"Do not judge a book by it's cover."

"Silence!" the head captain orders and all is quiet. He quietly adds, "Is there someone who will personally take responsibility if we shall keep her alive?"

Tia knows there is no one.

"Yes," says a smooth and delicate voice, "there is."

Everyone turns to Unohana with incredulous looks, including Tia.

"Are you mad?"

"She will only bring destruction!"

She opens her eyes and everyone realizes she knows what the meaning _responsibility_ contains.

"As the law of this land states, I will take this upon my shoulders--her punishment will be mine if she shall ever take wrong direction."

And then, the room is even quieter than before. Other captains glance at each other with curious and unbelieving stares. Others slowly find no interest any longer in the matter, predicting the unknown future for their own. There is still a hush in the room and Tia realizes she's been holding her breath for something she still doesn't know.

(A suspicious and doubtful look crosses her features as she stares at the captain willing to risk her world for Tia's. Faithful or not, she does not believe anyone would follow through--)

Unohana adds, "I have spoken for her."

For a moment, before Unohana closes her eyes, she glances over to the arrancar _kindly_. Harribel watches as she gives a slight smile, and if she hadn't been watching out for it, she would have missed the gesture.

All of a sudden, there is a small, ghostly echo of a _thump _beneath the thick exterior of her chest.

And, with widened and knowing eyes, Tia can no longer breathe the way she had _before_.

--x--

_fin_

--x--

I think Tia should be given more attention for her character and not just her boobs.


End file.
